Minutes of Serra Club Meeting

Thursday, Febr. 9, 2017

Members present: Linda Kerkman, Kathleen OBrien, Beth Gentrup, Pat & Jerry Schmit, Neil & Margaret
Bloomquist, Ivan & Mary Van Dyke, Mary & Dave Lux, Kristi Steffen, Paul & Sue Weeder, Ed & Sandy Moser &
Marilyn Kathol

Guests : none

The meeting was opened by Linda Kerkman. The meeting began with Serra Vocation Prayer

Program: Dr. Demitrio Aguila a Parishioner of Sacred Heart Church and a Plastic & ENT Surgeon in Norfolk.
Demitrio has a passion for his Catholic faith and has produced a series of podcasts called How to Speak
Catholic. Podcasting the JOY of the Gospel. He called himself as a young man as a Protestant in Catholic
clothing for a long time. He ran into his 1st anti-Catholic in college who challenge him on his faith. He was
tongue-tied to answer the questions being thrown at him. Challenged in his Faith, which humbled him, he
started looking for the answers. He started running into former anti-catholics who know had the fire for the
Catholic faith. He felt distance because he didnt know the words, ignorance of scripture & ignorance of
Christ. He challenged us to find someone who can answer our questions - he did... The Church which has
all the answers. He has started a series of podcasts which will help us discover the treasures The Church has
for us. Jesus was and is the commandments. The journey in the podcasts will help us find the love of Christ.
Common questions are talked about in the different podcasts The podcasts How to Speak Catholic can be
found in iTunes and Facebook. Check this series out for the treasures of our Catholic faith.

Secretary: The minutes of the previous meeting were read & approved and can be found on the website.
Norfolkareaserra.weebly.com

Treasurer: See bottom for Treasurers Report

Reports of vice presidents:

Communication: Kathy Steffensmeier, not present. Send bulletin invites about each meeting & the topic to
the Churches involved with our Serra Club.
Vocations: College Connections was talked about and Jerry S. & Marilyn K. will work on this
Membership: New members Ivan & Mary Van Dyke were introduced. FYI: In 2015 there were 8500 members
worldwide and Region 9 has 1500 members
Programs: See Above

Old Business:
Birthday Cards to Seminarians: Sue W. read a short note from a Priest which she will put in the birthday
cards. Very nice wisdom about the Priesthood was the subject of the note.
Bus for Deacon Ordination: Mary Lux is working on getting a 56 passenger bus to take down to Omaha on
the 29th of April for Ordination. Mary will make a bulletin insert & send to Linda. Marilyn will take care of the
RSVPs for the bus. Hardington & ONeill have also been contacted about the bus since they also have a
Deacon for Ordination.
Serran Server Awards: Will be in Humphrey at St. Francis Church on March 14th at 7:00 pm and on March
23rd at 7:00 pm for St. John the Baptist in Fordyce. Any member is welcome to attend & help with the
awards..
Memorial Cards: Linda handed out cards to all the members for us to start using. If you use one of the
cards, please send an email to Beth G. so she can put on Memorial page on the Serra website. Send money
to Kathleen OBrien.
New Business:
 Catholics at the Capitol: March 23rd at St. Marys Church basement in Lincoln :at 8:30 am. Will include
concerns that we as Catholics should know about what is happening in the State Government.
Officer List: Who will your new officers be? Sue is looking & asking for volunteers.
Parish Contacts: Linda is wanting to contact 3 Parishes around to start building a vocation committee in
those Parishes. We will start slow and it was thrown out to try in Pierce, Madison and Battle Creek could be
contacted. More to come on this
Chaplains Comments : Father Ross was not in attendance
Next Meeting: Next meeting is March 9th Talked about the April meeting to be on the 20th of April due to
regular meeting time would be Holy Thursday

Respectfully submitted,

Beth Gentrup
Food Schedule:
March 9th- Ivan & Mary Van Dyke
April - TBA
May - 11th - TBA